Squad Goals: Episode 12 – "Here Comes the Squirtle Squad"

Welcome back to the official digital home of The Pokémon Snapshot! We are incredibly excited to dive into another fantastic episode breakdown as our Kanto rewatch continues to pick up steam. Before we jump into the wild, sunglasses-wearing antics of Episode 12, we have to handle a little bit of housekeeping and shout out our amazing listeners.

This week, we received a great Twitter message from William Walton, who sparked a fierce debate between our hosts regarding the official Pokémon Snapshot Wall of Shame. He wrote in to say: "Surely Team Rocket should be on the wall of shame for pretty much everything they do."

Tyler: "I mean it seems like an obvious thing that we need to do. They should be on the wall of shame. They should have been top of the wall of shame. Except for maybe for the abusive guy [A.J.]. He should be top of the wall of shame."

Jeff: "Yeah, so here's the thing. I did not talk about putting Team Rocket on the Wall of Shame because we expected of them. And they really haven't done anything that horrible. They failed at every instance."

Tyler: "You know, Jeff, I'm gonna have to disagree with you on that because they are constantly trying to like kidnap and rob and do all sorts of really bad stuff. I feel like the intention is there. They're just really dumb."

Jeff: "Yeah, I guess you could say that, but if you look at our other people, we have Ash at the top of it, which I put him on there because he does some pretty horrible things for being the protagonist good guy of the episodes."

William Walton also raised a fantastic scientific point about Pikachu's electrical output: given that Pikachu generates thousands of volts of electricity, how is the trio not completely dead? Do Pokémon attacks just mightily hurt you instead of killing you? We have always said that if anyone in Team Rocket had an underlying heart condition, they would have been toast a dozen episodes ago!

With the science and shame debated, let's dive into Episode 12, "Here Comes the Squirtle Squad" (or, as it originally aired in Japan on June 17, 1997, "Enter the Squirtle Squad").

A Hole Lot of Pride

We begin the episode with the narrator reminding us that Ash has recently acquired both a Bulbasaur and a Charmander. Feeling completely on top of the world, Ash skips down the dirt road singing the main theme song from the Pokémon Red and Blue video games. The narrator asks the audience if Ash has gotten a little too confident about his recent successes, and the answer is an immediate, resounding yes.

While Ash is busy celebrating his own greatness, the entire party suddenly plummets into a massive, hidden pit trap. This has become a hilarious running trend in the anime—people falling into holes—and Misty is officially over it. Brock immediately assumes it's a prank, and right on cue, a gang of Squirtles wearing sunglasses peers over the edge to laugh at them.

The cool, sunglasses-wearing gang peers over the ridge to mock the latest victims of Kanto's severely underfunded infrastructure.

Ash pulls out his Pokédex to learn about the Pokémon, while Brock completely drops the ball on basic regional knowledge.

Jeff: "And when the Squirtle show up, Brock says, 'Who are you?' Obviously Brock does not know as much about Pokemon as he thinks he does. I mean Squirtle, it's a Pokemon that everyone should know. How is he like, 'Who are you? I've never seen this in my life.'"

Tyler: "Yeah, it is one of the main starters. Plus, didn't he battle some of the other people from Ash's hometown, you know, before he encountered Ash, which would then make you believe that he did encounter a Squirtle."

Ash gets incredibly excited, claiming that with a Squirtle on his team, Gary Oak will never be able to beat him again. He immediately orders Pikachu to use Thunder Shock on the Lead Squirtle (who is distinguished by his pointy, aggressive sports shades, while the peons wear round aviators). In a surprising show of loyalty, one of the peon Squirtles dives in front of the blast, sacrificing itself to save the leader. Angered, the Lead Squirtle engages in an intense staredown with Pikachu before ordering his squad to retreat into the woods.

Pikachu attempts to establish dominance against the gang leader before a peon Squirtle takes the hit for his boss.

Jeff: "Yeah, and this is why I think Ash is so bad at catching Pokemon. I mean that Squirtle was just laying on the ground. Come on, Ash, throw a Pokeball or something. That's all you need to do and you would have had a Squirtle then and there."

Robo-Cop-ies

Just after the squad retreats, Officer Jenny pulls up on her motorcycle. Ash greets her warmly, assuming she is the exact same police officer who nearly arrested him in Viridian City, but she clarifies that they must have met one of her cousins. Apparently, all police officers in Kanto are named Jenny, and they are all genetically identical.

A rare family photograph confirming that every single cousin in this family is somehow genetically identical, completely name-resemblant, and legally authorized to carry weapons.

Tyler: "Yeah, and I think maybe they're all androids. So they're just they're not born, they're built. This would also explain why there is only ever one nurse joy in each Pokemon Center. She doesn't need to sleep, she's not a real human."

Tyler: "Ash, completely not seeing how odd this entire situation is, says talk about family resemblance, and Misty says at least they remember all of their names. Holy cow, and this particular moment I just want to point out that when Misty says that, she seems to be uncomfortable and has a sweat bead running down her face. I'm gonna assume that she did the mental math on this, gets disturbed, and decides she don't have time to deal with this today."

Officer Jenny takes the crew back to the police station and explains that the town is being terrorized by the "Squirtle Squad"—a gang of abandoned Pokémon who run amok spray-painting buildings and stealing produce. Jenny notes that it's a tragic situation; if these Pokémon had trainers who actually cared about them, they never would have turned to a life of crime. It is a surprisingly deep moment of societal commentary on troubled youth perfectly masked behind small turtles in sunglasses.

Kanto’s Regional Pastries

We flash over to Team Rocket, who are watching Ash's party through binoculars. Jessie wants them to focus on the mission to steal Pikachu, but James wants Chinese food and Meowth wants tacos. Jessie chews them out for being distracted, but when her own stomach violently growls, she relents and pulls out a picnic basket. Before they can take a single bite, the Squirtle Squad appears ominously behind them. Jessie attempts to step forward to teach them a lesson, but instantly falls into yet another pit trap.

The Squirtles tie Team Rocket to a tree and begin eating their lunch right in front of them, which leads to one of the most infamous localization changes in the history of the English dub.

The Squirtle Squad enjoys an outdoor feast, proving that even petty crime has its perks when your victims fall into holes as easily as Team Rocket.

Jeff: "Yeah, and in the dub they mentioned that they are eating donuts and eclairs, while in the Japanese original it is rice balls and sandwiches. And I just find it interesting that they have to change the foods that Americanize them because maybe we just won't understand, I guess, as Americans."

Tyler: "Also, what the heck is an eclair?"

Jeff: "It's it's a type of donut, and don't get me wrong, any I'm not a donut professional, I guess we call them Boston Creme... aren't they like just the big donuts that have like the fillings on the inside?"

Tyler: "I think we call them Long Johns, but... Yes, we call them Long Johns in Iowa."

Desperate to escape, Jessie attempts to strike a deal, offering to pay the Squirtles if they help capture Pikachu. The Lead Squirtle refuses, stating that humans cannot be trusted. In a stroke of brilliant comedic timing, Meowth explains that the humans are actually his pets, and he proves it by brutally kicking James while he is tied to the tree. The Lead Squirtle respects this display of dominance, cuts Meowth down, and a villainous alliance is officially formed.

The Worst Water Rescue

We cut back to Ash and the party relaxing on a riverbank. Suddenly, a Squirtle breaches the surface and violently spits water all over them. Disgusted and enraged, Ash orders Pikachu to shock the Squirtle. Unfortunately, since the entire party is soaking wet, the electricity heavily conducts through their clothes, violently electrocuting Ash, Misty, and Brock instead of the target.

Pikachu unleashes thousands of volts of electricity, proving Brock's sudden realization that wet clothes make fantastic electrical conductors.

Ash finally orders Pikachu to physically engage, but the Squirtle spins into its shell and knocks Pikachu directly into the river. To make matters worse, a wild Goldeen appears in the water, charging at the struggling mouse.

Jeff: "I don't know why Ash didn't have Pikachu shock him at this time. I mean this would have been the perfect time to shock the Goldeen. They were in the water and that water would have just conducted everything. And the Squirtle as well."

Tyler: "Yeah, it would have ended the entire problem if Ash would have made an uncharacteristically good decision."

Instead, Ash tells Pikachu to "swim for shore," but he is too slow. The Goldeen knocks Pikachu completely out of the water, leaving him severely injured and unconscious on the bank. Before Ash can even react, the rest of the Squirtle Squad emerges from the bushes, lassoes the entire party like Wild West cowboys, and drags them away.

An Execution (Or a Dye Job)

The party wakes up tied to a rock deep inside a dark cave, with poor Pikachu trapped inside a literal hamster cage. Ash begs the Squirtle Squad to let him go so he can run to town and buy a Super Potion to save Pikachu's life. The Lead Squirtle refuses, believing it's a trick. Ash is pushed to his absolute emotional limit and begins to openly cry. Touched by this rare display of genuine compassion, the Lead Squirtle agrees to let him go—under one major condition.

Ash breaks down into tears to secure a medical release for Pikachu, completely unaware that his tardiness will allegedly result in Misty getting a purple dye job.

Jeff: "In the dubbed version, he just says Pikachu will be in big trouble. They actually allude to Pikachu dying in the Japanese original. And then also in the original, they didn't threaten to dye Misty's hair purple. They said that if he was not back by noon they would execute her."

Tyler: "Holy cow."

Jeff: "So can you see why she showed being that upset?"

Tyler: "You know, I actually almost made a comment about that. I'm like, really Misty? Like, okay, they'll dye your hair purple. You can then dye it another color. Purple hair is actually pretty cool looking, in my opinion. I mean, like it's not that big of a deal. Like that was a very like loose threat. So I didn't understand why she was freaking out so bad. This makes that make a whole lot more sense."

Wild West Stick-Ups

Ash takes off sprinting toward town. In a sequence of terrible luck, he attempts to cross a heavily rotted rope bridge. The boards snap, the entire bridge collapses, and Ash plummets into the rocky river below.

Tyler: "I have no idea. I mean it there's a lot of rickety bridges and none of them are well maintained... A lot of the roads are in really terrible shape. Very few of them are paved. We do know that they have like automobiles because we've seen motorcycles and things like that, but I've not seen many paved roads and I've seen a lot of rickety rope bridges. They definitely do need to get on that."

Battered, bruised, and using a branch as a walking stick, Ash limps into a dusty, Wild West-style town. He tries to enter a shop but is immediately slammed in the face by the door. In a brilliant blink-and-you-miss-it cameo, the person swinging the door open is actually Gary Oak!

Gary Oak makes a lightning-fast cameo appearance just to violently smash a door into his rival’s face.

Inside the shop, Team Rocket is currently holding up the owners to steal supplies to capture the Squirtle Squad. In a stunning display of early-anime censorship chaos, Jessie and James are pointing literal, realistic firearms (a bazooka and what appears to be a rifle) at the shopkeepers. Ash stumbles into the middle of the armed robbery, completely unfazed by the very real guns being pointed directly at his face, and simply asks to buy a Super Potion. Thankfully, Officer Jenny bursts into the shop, declaring that Ash isn't with Team Rocket, and whisks him away on her motorcycle.

Ash stands completely unfazed as a general store full of townspeople point actual, real-world firearms directly at his face.

Ditching the Sunglasses (For Now)

Officer Jenny uses a secret back entrance to get Ash back into the cave, where he uses his Charmander's tail to light the way. He administers the Super Potion to Pikachu just as explosions begin to rock the cavern! Team Rocket is floating overhead in their Meowth hot air balloon, literally dropping cartoonish black bombs with lit fuses onto the area.

The Squirtle Squad panics and scatters, but the Lead Squirtle trips and falls directly into the drop zone of an incoming bomb. In a massive moment of redemption, Ash dives on top of the Lead Squirtle, using his own body as a human shield to absorb the explosion!

Tyler: "So Ash is really starting to redeem himself this episode... almost. Almost not quite, but enough to get himself off of the wall of shame."

Realizing that this human actually cares about him, the Lead Squirtle picks Ash up and carries him to safety. Team Rocket gloats from the sky, but Ash and the Lead Squirtle emerge on a high cliff. With a powerful Water Gun attack, Squirtle blasts a hole straight through the hot air balloon, sending Team Rocket spiraling out of control.

Unfortunately, the cartoon bombs have sparked a massive forest fire that threatens to burn the entire town to the ground. Ash rallies the Squirtle Squad, and together, they use their synchronized Water Guns to extinguish the raging inferno. The town is saved, and in a deeply weird, slightly nationalistic ceremony, Officer Jenny officially dubs the reformed gang as the town's official firefighting squad.

The reformed Squirtle Squad proudly accepts their award, completing their rapid transition from a street gang spray-painting buildings to the town’s official firefighting department.

Jeff: "Yeah, and something this made me think of if this is the equivalent of when small towns make an animal the mayor or something like that. Have you heard of that before, Tyler? So it made me curious, so I did a little research and I found a great one, and it was the town of La Hitas, Texas, elected a goat as their mayor. His name was Clay Henry the Third, and he was known as the beer drinking goat."

Tyler: "I just want to point out that I would rather have a beer-drinking goat be my mayor than the mayor I had in my hometown growing up."

As Ash and the party finally leave town, they notice the Lead Squirtle following them down the road. Ash asks if he wants to join the team, and in a heartwarming moment, the Squirtle takes off his pointy sports shades and leaps into Ash's arms for a hug. Ash has officially completed his collection of the three Kanto starter Pokémon!

Our journey through the Kanto region continues to pick up steam, so make sure to pack your bags, avoid any suspicious-looking pit traps, and meet us right back here next week as we trek to the coastline to uncover The Mystery at the Lighthouse.